Conditional branch execution

ABSTRACT

A method of conditionally executing branch instructions which comprise an opcode field defining a type of test to be applied to determine whether or not to execute a branch operation, a control field designating a control store holding a plurality of indicators and a destination field holding information on a branch target address. The method comprises determining from the opcode field whether or not the test will check the state of one indicator or a plurality of indicators in the designated control store, accessing the designated control store to check the state of said one or said plurality of indicators depending on the determination, and generating a branch target address using information in the destination field in dependence on the state of the or each indicator checked.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims priority to Provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 60/296,758, filed Jun. 11, 2001, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Field of the Invention

[0003] The present invention relates to a computer system for conditionally performing branch instructions, to an execution unit for use in the computer system and to a method of executing branch instructions.

[0004] In general, computer programs consist of many instruction sequences. Each instruction sequence begins at a different commencement address in an instruction store. Computer systems begin executing an instruction sequence at the commencement address and continue to the end of the instruction sequence or until a branch instruction is reached. A branch instruction causes a computer to execute a new instruction sequence beginning at a new commencement address. The new commencement address is called the branch target address and is specified in the branch instruction. Thus when a branch instruction is reached, a computer system needs to know whether or not to move to the branch target address or to continue executing the present instruction sequence beyond the branch instruction. Computer systems can perform branch instructions in dependence on whether or not a specified condition is met. A branch is taken if the specified condition is met. If the specified condition is not met, the branch is not performed and the computer system moves instead to the next instruction in the present sequence.

[0005] Known computer systems perform branches in dependence on the result of a single test condition. Therefore to implement more complicated branching semantics, a sequence of branch instructions must be coded, each branch in the instruction being taking conditionally independence on the result of a different test. That is, a first branch in the code sequence is taken if a first test condition is met and other branches are taken subsequently based on further test conditions. Such code sequences use resources of the computer system for considerable periods of time.

[0006] The present invention seeks to provide an improved method and apparatus for conditionally executing branches.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of conditionally executing branch instructions which comprise an opcode field defining a type of test to be applied to determine whether or not to execute a branch operation, a control field designating a control store holding a plurality of indicators, and a destination field holding information on a branch target address, the method comprising: determining from the opcode field whether or not the test will check the state of one indicator or a plurality of indicators in the designated control store; accessing the designated control store to check the state of said one or said plurality of indicators depending on the determination; and generating a branch target address using information in the destination field in dependence on the state of the or each indicator checked.

[0008] According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided branch execution circuitry for use in a computer system to conditionally execute branch instructions, the branch execution circuitry comprising: at least one control store comprising a plurality of indicators, each said indicator being preset to a first state or a second state; and checking circuitry connected to detect an indication of the type of test to be applied in determining whether or not to execute the branch from a branch instruction, said checking circuitry being operable to check one or a plurality of said indicators of the control store according to the detected test type; and branch target address generation circuitry for generating a branch target address, the branch target address generation circuitry being operative to generate a branch target address in dependence on the test performed on the or each indicator.

[0009] According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided branch execution circuitry for use in a computer system to conditionally execute branch instructions, the branch execution circuitry comprising: a plurality of predicate register means each comprising a plurality of indicators, each said indicator capable of being preset to a first state or a second state; and checking means connected to detect an indication of which predicate register means is to be accessed and an indication of the type of test to be applied during the access to determine whether or not to execute the branch from a branch instruction, said checking means being operable to check one or a plurality of said indicators of the control store means according to the detected test type; and branch target address generation means for generating a branch target address, the branch target address generation circuitry being operative to generate a branch target address in dependence on the test performed on the or each indicator.

[0010] The invention also provides a computer system including such an execution unit and computer program product comprising program code means for performing preferred methods.

[0011] For predicate registers, just the values TRUE or FALSE are held in the predicate register. If the branch instruction is predicated TRUE, then the branch is performed. However if the branch instruction is predicated false, then the branch is not taken.

[0012] In the predicated machine branch code sequences can be replaced by TRUES/FALSE values. The computer system can include one or more predicate registers which hold a resolved single bit representing the result of a test condition or a series of test conditions. As will be explained in detail hereinafter, functionality corresponding to that provided by a sequence of branches performed conditionally in dependence on independent tests appears in the compare instruction used to set the values in the predicate register before the instruction sequence is processed.

[0013] Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following and the accompanying drawings or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] For a better understanding of the present invention and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings in which:

[0015]FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a computer system embodying the present invention;

[0016]FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating general formats for encoding instructions processed by the computer system of FIG. 1;

[0017]FIG. 3 illustrates differing degrees of packing in a general purpose register for holding packed objects defining operand lanes;

[0018]FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating how an operation is performed on respective lanes of a packed operand;

[0019]FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a predicate register;

[0020]FIG. 6A illustrates a number of 64-bit long instruction words;

[0021]FIG. 6B illustrates a number of 32-bit instruction formats suitable for inclusion in a 64 bit instruction;

[0022]FIG. 7A illustrates a first branch operation performed conditionally;

[0023]FIG. 7B illustrates a second branch operation performed conditionally;

[0024]FIG. 8A illustrates a first example of a predicate register setting operation;

[0025]FIG. 8B illustrates a second example of a predicate register setting operation;

[0026]FIG. 9A illustrates a third example of a predicate register setting operation;

[0027]FIG. 9B illustrates a fourth example of a predicate register setting operation;

[0028]FIG. 10 illustrates a fifth example of a predicate register setting operation; and

[0029]FIG. 11 schematically illustrates a typical sequence of operations performed by preferred computer systems.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0030] Reference now is made in detail to the presently preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and discussed below.

[0031]FIG. 1 illustrates a computer system embodying the present invention. The computer system is a 64 bit long instruction word machine including two identical Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) units designated by reference numerals X and Y.

[0032] The computer system includes an instruction cache 3 for receiving and holding instructions from a program memory (not shown). The instruction cache 3 is connected to instruction fetch/decode circuitry 4. The fetch/decode circuitry 4 issues addresses in the program memory from which instructions are to be fetched and receives on each fetch operation a 64 bit instruction from the cache 3 (or program memory).

[0033] The computer system has two SIMD execution units 8 x, 8 y, one on the X-side of the machine and one on the Y-side. Each of the SIMD execution units 8 x, 8 y includes three data processing units, namely a Multiplier Accumulator Unit MAC, an Integer Unit INT and a Galois Field Unit GFU. A Load/Store Unit LSU 6 x, 6 y is provided on each of the X and Y-side SIMD units. The computer system includes a dual port data cache 15 connected to both the X and Y-side SIMD units and a data memory (not shown). The fetch decode circuitry 4 evaluates the opcode and transmits control signals along the channels 5 x, 5 y to control the movement of data between designated registers and the MAC, INT, GFU and LSU functional units.

[0034] The computer system includes four M-registers 10 for holding multiply-accumulate results and sixty-four general purpose registers 11 including R-registers, each of which is 64 bits wide and “programmer visible”. The M-registers are wider than the R-registers, the additional precision being used to accommodate the results of multiply accumulate operations. The computer system has a plurality of control registers 13.

[0035] The control registers 13 include a Processor State Register PSR, a Machine State Register MSR, a Program Counter PC register and eight predicate registers 18. Processor status information is stored in the PSR and the MSR sticky bits. Rounding and saturation modes and multiply-accumulate pipe control information is stored in the MSR. The predicate registers 18 provide a means for conditionally carrying out operations on a per SIMD lane basis. The processor also has a further set of DIR registers (not shown) which allow interrupt status and timers to be managed.

[0036] With reference to FIG. 2, each 64 bit instruction is a long instruction word. The long instruction word may define a single operation according to a long instruction format 20 or two independent operations (Inst 1, Inst 2) according to a shorter 32-bit instruction format 22. Examples of long and short instruction formats are provided later with reference to FIGS. 6A and 6B. Each of the X and Y sides of the machine are thus capable of 64 bit execution on multiple data units, for example on four 16 bit packed operands at once under the control of the relevant 32-bit instruction.

[0037] Each of the MAC, INT, GFU and LSU operate on a Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) principle according to the SIMD lane expressed in the instruction. Data processing operations operate on 64 bits of information at the same time, but may treat the information as eight bytes, four half words, two words or one long word according to a protocol defining the degree of packing of objects for packed data processing operations.

[0038] The degree of packing of objects is defined according to the following protocol:

[0039] B—8 bit objects (also referred to as bytes B₀ . . . B₇);

[0040] H—16 bit objects (also referred to as half words H₀ . . . H₃);

[0041] W—32 bit objects (also referred to as words W₀ . . . W₁);

[0042] L—64 bit objects (also referred to as long words L);

[0043] A Dual operation is a special type of operation which uses even/odd pairs of registers to perform operations on 128 bits of information at the same time:

[0044] DL—128 bit objects (also referred to as double long words DL).

[0045] In the case of floating point processing operations data may be handled with two differing degrees of precision, namely:

[0046] S—32 bit floating point values (also referred to as single precision); and

[0047] D—64 bit floating point values (also referred to as double precision).

[0048] Simultaneous execution in the twin X and Y-side units under the control of a single 32 bit instruction portion is referred to herein as Dual Instruction Multiple Data (DIMD). However, such operations may be regarded as two SIMD instructions being performed in parallel. In general, data operations employ a first operand and a second operand (which may be an immediate value) to produce a result. Each operand is obtained from a source register (unless it is an immediate value) and the result is sent to a destination register.

[0049]FIG. 3 illustrates how a general purpose register such as an R-register 30 may contain 64 bits of information allocated as eight bytes (B₀-B₇), four half words (Ho-H₃), two words (W₀, W₁) or a single long word (L₀). Similarly, floating point values may be stored as 32 bit single precision values S₀, S₁ or as 64 bit double precision values. Some of the R-registers may be reserved for special purposes. For example in this embodiment, Register 63 is hard wired to zero (referred to herein as the “Zero Register”). Register 62 is hard wired to ones (referred to herein as the “Ones Register”). Registers 61 and 60 are banked registers. Registers 56-59 are also banked for interrupt purposes. The Zero Register may be used for providing zero as an input to operations and nullifying actions (e.g. discarding the permanent link in branches). Some data processing operations use even/odd pairs of registers as source and destination.

[0050] M-registers are able to contain a double sized product plus a single byte for each SIMD lane. For example, an M-register used to accumulate byte multiplies contains 8 sets of 16+8 bits, where 16 bits is the double size product for a byte and 8 bits is the overflow allowed in the accumulator. Likewise, when used to accumulate half word multiplies an M-register contains 4 sets of 32+8 bits and contains 2 sets of 64+8 bits when used to accumulate word multiplies.

[0051] For each channel 5 x, 5 y, if the instruction defines a data processing unit it is supplied to the appropriate unit of the MAC, INT and the GFU and if it defines a load/store operation it is supplied to the LSU. Data values may be loaded to and from the MAC data processing units into and out of the M-registers 10 along register-access paths 12 x and 12 y. Data values may be loaded to and from the INT, GFU and load/store units into and out of the R-registers along register access paths 14 x and 14 y. Each register access path can carry register data between the accessing unit, two source addresses src1, src2 and a destination address dest as specified in the instruction. The register access paths also carry control data to and from the control registers 13.

[0052] In the case of data processing operations, the source addresses src1, src2 define registers in the register files 10 and 11, which hold source operands for processing by the data processing unit. The destination address dest identifies a destination register into which the result of the data processing operation is placed. An optional field in the instruction defines a predicate register in cases where the operation defined in the instruction is to be performed conditionally on multiple SIMD lanes. The operands and results are thus conveyed between the register files 10, 11 and the respective functional unit via the access paths 12, 14. In certain types of data processing operations src2 may be replaced by an immediate value as will be explained later.

[0053] In the case of load/store operations, instruction formats use predefined addressing modes to allow memory access addresses Ax, Ay to be formulated from data values held in the registers. The load/store units access a common address space in the form of a data memory (not shown) via the dual ported data cache 15. For this purpose each load/store unit has a 64 bit data bus Dx, Dy and a 64 bit address bus Ax, Ay.

[0054]FIG. 4 illustrates schematically how data processing operations performed in the various functional units are capable of acting on 64 bits of information simultaneously on a per SIMD lane basis. In general, operations may be regarded as working in vertical lanes having a width corresponding to the size of the packed objects of the operands. Assume a 32-bit instruction causes an ADD data processing operation. The ADD instruction has the following semantics ADD{B/H/W} dest, src1, src2. The operation shown in FIG. 4 is an ADDB operation and thus treats the data as byte packed data. The instruction specifies first and second 64-bit source registers src1, src2, each source register containing byte packed operands for the addition operation. The instruction also specifies a 64-bit destination register dest for holding the result of the addition operation. A first plurality of byte sized operands B₀-B₇ are held in the first source register src1. A second plurality of byte sized operands are held in the second source register src2. Addition circuitry 40 connected between the source and destination registers comprises eight operators, in this case addition circuits. Each operator is connected to receive two byte sized objects, one from each lane B₀-B₇ of the source registers src1, src2 (only selected connections are shown in FIG. 4). The operators perform the ADD operation on the byte packed objects and the results are sent to equivalent bit locations in the destination register dest. Alternative versions of the ADD instruction, namely ADDW and ADDH, treat the 64-bits of data as two words and four half words respectively. It is of course possible for some operations to work horizontally (i.e. across columns in a row).

[0055] The computer system of FIG. 1 provides for conditional execution of multiple data processing operations on a per SIMD lane basis, lane size being defined by the degree of packing of operands. To achieve this the control registers 13 include eight predicate registers pr0-pr7 such as that illustrated in FIG. 5. Each predicate register 50 is eight bits 0-7 in size, having one bit value (TRUE or FALSE) for each of the eight byte lanes B₀-B₇. The individual bits of a predicate register can be set TRUE or FALSE as desired. When an SIMD instruction is processed the operation defined in the instruction is only performed on byte lanes where the controlling predicate register bit is TRUE. No operations are executed on byte lanes where the controlling predicate register bits are FALSE. In this embodiment, one predicate register pr7 is permanently set with all bits TRUE. The predicate registers can be accessed from both the X and Y-sides of the machine for the purposes being set and of controlling conditional execution.

[0056] An instruction for an operation which is to be conditionally executed per lane includes a field indicating which of the eight predicate registers should control the operation defined in the instruction. The decode circuitry includes control circuitry for determining a controlling predicate register from this field, and flags within the controlling predicate register are checked by predicate checking circuitry. Each bit 0-7 of the designated predicate register controls the correspondingly numbered byte lane B₀-B₇ used in the operation. That is, bit i of the designated predicate register controls the conditional execution of SIMD byte lane i. Non-SIMD instructions are controlled by bit 0 of the designated predicate register and therefore the entire non-SIMD operation is executed in dependence on whether or not that bit is TRUE or FALSE.

[0057]FIGS. 6A and 6B show examples of instruction formats for use with the computer system of FIG. 1. The instruction formats use 64-bit long instruction words. The X and Y side operations are generally independent, although registers may be shared. An opcode major field comprises the first two bits of each instruction portion (i.e. bits 63, 62; 31, 30). The opcode major field in combination with the opcode field defines the type of operation to be performed.

[0058] Referring to FIG. 6A, the normal long instruction format 20 a comprises an X-side 32-bit instruction portion and a Y-side 32-bit instruction portion packed into a single 64-bit instruction. Each 32-bit instruction portion may take any of the 32-bit formats disclosed in FIG. 6B. These 32-bit instruction formats may define a single operation or two separate operations which may be freely mixed (i.e. used in any combination). For example, it is possible to perform eight separate byte adds and four separate half word multiplies at the same time, the add and multiply operations being defined in separate halves of the long instruction. In this example, the X-side opcode major field defined by bits 63, 62 takes a value from 0-2, with bits 61-32 available as an X-side opcode field. Likewise, the Y-side opcode major field defined by bits 31, 30 takes a value from 0-2, with bits 29-0 available as a Y-side opcode field. Thus, in the case of normal instructions these opcode major fields take values from 0-2, with the value of 3 being reserved for special operations.

[0059] This embodiment also supports a long immediate instruction 20 b in which a 32 bit immediate value is defined by bits in both the X and Y-side portions of the instruction. The X-side of the instruction defines the beginning of the long immediate value and the Y-side of the instruction carries the extra bits to make up the long immediate value. The X-side opcode major field defined by bits 63, 62 takes a value 0-2 and opcode bits 61-32 define a first operand together with a first 8 bit portion of the long immediate value. The Y-side opcode major field defined by bits 31, 30 takes a value of 1 and the opcode bits 29-0 contain the additional 24 bits required to specify a 32-bit immediate value. Long immediate instructions are thus 64-bit instructions which allow most of the Register/Immediate ALU operations to be performed using a 32-bit immediate value. Long immediate instructions are performed on the X-side of the machine while the Y-side of the machine is redundant.

[0060] A data processing operation may be combined with a load store operation. The data processing operation is defined in the X-side instruction portion (bits 63-32) and the load/store operation is defined in the Y-side instruction portion (bits 31-0). According to a special case, dualable load/store operations allow movement of 128 bit values into and out of consecutive (paired) 64 bit registers and may be combined with dual execute operations (e.g. ALU2 or MAC2 operations) which act on all operands held in the paired registers at the same time. Dual execute operations use even/odd pairs of registers for the two source registers and the destination register and execute on both the X and Y sides of the machine simultaneously. Dual execute operations can be performed conditionally under the control of pairs of predicate registers. Referring to the long instruction format designated by reference numeral 20 c, the X-side opcode major field defined by bits 63, 62 takes a value of 0-2 and the X-side opcode bits 61-32 define an operation (for example, an ALU or ALU2 operation). The load/store operation is defined by the opcode major field (bits 31, 30) which takes a value of 3 and opcode bits 29-0. The load/store operation runs on the Y-side of the machine.

[0061] Another long instruction format 20 d using an X-side instruction portion having an opcode major field of 3 and Y-side opcode major bits taking a value of 0-3 is reserved for special functions not defined herein.

[0062]FIG. 6B shows examples of 32-bit instruction formats which this embodiment uses to define the or each operation in the long instruction word. In each case an optional predicate register field (Psrc) indicates which of the eight predicate registers controls per lane execution of the operation defined in the instruction. In general, all src/link fields designate R registers. The src1 and dest fields may designate R register pairs. The dest field may designate an R-, M- or predicate register.

[0063] Register/Register instructions 22 a provide a full set of SIMD data processing operations. Operands are taken from first and second register sources and the result is allocated to a destination register. In general Register/Register 32 bit instruction formats 22 a include a controlling predicate field (Psrc, bits 0-2), a destination register field (Gdest, bits 3-8) and two source register fields (Gsrc1, bits 9-14; and Gsrc 2, bits 15-20) and an opcode major field taking a zero value (bits 31, 30). The remaining bits are available as opcode bits to define the operation. For compare/test operations the Gdest field indicates a predicate register to be written to as will be illustrated later. For MAC operations the Gdest field designates an M-register.

[0064] Register/Immediate instructions 22 b provide a set of SIMD data processing operations using as operands the contents of a source register and a (replicated) immediate value. The result is placed in another register. To perform this type of operation the second source register is replaced with an 8-bit immediate value Imm8. Thus, Register/Immediate instructions 22 b include a controlling predicate field (Psrc, bits 0-2), a destination register field (Gdest, bits 3-8), a source register field (Gsrc1, bits 9-14), an immediate field (bits 15-22) and an opcode major field taking a value of 1 (bits 31, 30), with remaining bits available to define the operation. The immediate field is an 8-bit value representing a number between 0-255. Immediate values are extended by zeros to the lane size of the SIMD operation (b, h, w, 1) and then replicated across each of the SIMD lanes.

[0065] As mentioned with reference to FIG. 6A long immediate instructions are 64 bit instructions allowing register/immediate operations to be performed with 32 bit immediate values. Long immediate instructions are run on the X-side of the machine. A 24 bit immediate extension is needed on the Y-side of the machine. An example of a 32-bit instruction portion indicating a 24 bit immediate extension value is designated by reference numeral 22 c. Instruction portions carrying 24 bit immediate extensions have an opcode major field taking a value of 1 (bits 31, 30).

[0066] Thus, it will be apparent that in 32-bit data processing instruction formats 2 bits are used in the opcode major field, 6 bits are used in each register field to indicate source and/or destination registers, 3 bits are used in a predicate field to indicate which, if any, of the eight predicate registers should control conditional execution per lane. The remaining opcode field bits are generally used to provide information on the type of operation, which information is decoded taking into account the values in the X- and Y-side opcode major fields. Where 8 bit or 32 bit immediate values are specified in instructions additional bits are required over and above those required to indicate a register holding a value.

[0067] The instruction formats 22 d, 22 e and 22 f specify load/store operations employing a range of standard addressing modes. According to this embodiment, loads fetch a single value, i.e. a byte, half word, word or a long word from memory into a register. Where a small value is loaded, the value is loaded into the bottom of the register in question. Where a full 64-bit register has been loaded the value may be treated as a single long word, as two words, four half words or eight bytes. Store operations write a single value, i.e. a byte, half word, word, long word (or double long word) from a register to memory. Where a value is smaller than a register being used, the bottom part of the register is used. Where a full 64-bit value is stored, the contents can be treated as a single long word, two words, four half words, or eight bytes. Even/odd register pairs are provided to accommodate double long word (i.e. 128 bit) load/store operations.

[0068] Referring to the 32 bit instruction format 22 d load/store register/register operations move register data between a register Gdata and memory. The instruction format 22 d includes a controlling predicate field (Psrc, bits 0-2), a base register field (Gbase, bits 3-8), a data register field (Gdata, bits 9-14), an index field (Gsrc2 (index), bits 15-20), a scale field (scale, bits 21, 22), a word indicator field (W_(1/0), bit 24), a write back indicator field (W₆, bit 25) and an opcode major field (bits 30, 31) taking a value of 0.

[0069] Referring to the 32-bit instruction format 22 e load/store register/offset operations permit load/store operations with data locations defined by an offset coded as a 9 bit twos complement value. This instruction format has some fields in common with the instruction format 22 d and these fields have the same definitions here. Load/store register/offset instructions include a 9-bit immediate value (Imm 9, bits 15-23) used to specify an offset in place of the index value register field. Also included is an “addmost” indicator field (am, bit 25) and an opcode major field (bits 30, 31) taking a value of 2. That is, two further bits are required to specify an 8 bit immediate value and a total of 26 further bits are required to specify a 32 bit immediate value.

[0070] Referring to the 32-bit instruction format 22 f, a special class of dualable load/store operations may be placed on the Y-side of the machine at the same time as a data processing operation is placed on the X-side of the machine. A dualable load/store instruction includes a type field (Id, bit 27) specifying either a load or a store ifunction, a Y-side dual indicator field (Is2, bit 28) controlling whether the contents of one or two registers should be transferred in the load store operation, an X-side dual indicator field (ps2, bit 29) controlling whether or not the X-side data processing operation is to be mirrored on the Y-side, and an opcode major field taking a value of 3. Where the load/store operation is dualled two memory addresses are generated. For example, the bit sequence representing an offset would be supplied from the original Y-side instruction position to both the X- and Y-side load/store units. In this embodiment, the path to the Y-side load/store unit supplies the offset unaltered to the Y-side load/store unit, whereas the path to the X-side load/store unit includes a unitary operator which selectively alters the logical value of at least one bit in the offset bit sequence such that a different memory address is accessed by the X-side. When an X-side data processing operation is mirrored on the Y-side, the various fields of the data processing instruction are additionally transferred to the relevant unit(s) on the Y-side with relevant values thereof having been adjusted as necessary. For example, where the X-side data processing operation is mirrored on the Y-side, “even” source and destination register addresses are supplied to the relevant functional unit on the X-side, whereas corresponding “odd” register addresses are supplied to the functional unit on the Y-side.

[0071] The above load/store instruction formats can define load/store instructions using six standard addressing modes. These address modes are illustrated in Table 1. TABLE 1 Semantics Function 1 [<rbase>, <reg>, {W₀/W₁} base + scaled pre-indexed {<<shift}] 2 [<rbase>, <reg>, {W₀/W₁} base + scaled pre-indexed with write {<<shift}] ! back 3 [<rbase>, # <offset>] base + offset pre-indexed 4 [<rbase>, # <offset>] base + offset scaled pre-indexed 5 <rbase>, # <offset> ! base + offset pre-indexed with write back 6 [<rbase>], # <offset> ! base + offset post-indexed with write back

[0072] In Table 1, < > denotes a mandatory field, { } denotes an optional field and/delimits a list of choices. Where {W₀/W₁} is present but not specified the default is W₀. Scale values may be <<1, <<2, or <<3.

[0073] A first type of address mode (1) uses a base register plus a scaled register pre-indexed addressing mode. According to this mode the address is the unsigned 64-bit contents of the base register plus the signed 32-bit contents of the index register, optionally shifted by the shift amount.

[0074] A second type of address mode (2) employs a base register plus scaled register pre-indexed address mode with a write back function. According to this mode the address is the unsigned 64-bit contents of the base register plus the signed 32-bit contents of the index register, optionally shifted by a shift amount. The value generated is then written back to the base register.

[0075] A third type of address mode (3) uses a base register and an immediate offset (pre-indexed). According to his mode the address is the unsigned 64 bit contents of the base register plus an immediate offset. The immediate offset can of course be a positive or negative value.

[0076] A fourth type of address mode (4) uses a base register and an immediate offset scaled to long words (pre-indexed). In this case the address is the unsigned 64 bit contents of the base register plus the immediate offset scaled to long words. The assembler works out which of the two address forms is required, for example using the non-scaled form.

[0077] A fifth type of address mode (5) uses a base register and an immediate offset (pre-indexed) with a write back function. The address is the unsigned 64-bit contents of the base register plus the immediate offset and is written back to the base register.

[0078] A sixth type of address mode (6) uses a base register and an immediate offset (post-indexed) with a write back function. In this case the address is the unsigned 64-bit contents of the base register. However, the value of the base register plus the immediate offset is computed and written back to the base register.

[0079] The instruction formats 22 g and 22 h of FIG. 6B specify branch operations which in this embodiment may only be issued on the X-side of the machine. The machine can perform long and short branches. Branch instructions to be executed conditionally test the TRUE/FALSE values of bits in predicate registers designated in the Psrc field of the instructions. Long and short instructions are used to implement conditional branches in essentially the same manner as will be described below. A branch may be taken if a particular predicate register bit is TRUE or FALSE and if any or no bits in the predicate register are TRUE. If the branch condition is met, a branch target address is generated and the result is placed back in the PC register. The execution unit thus moves to the branch target address on the next fetch cycle. The old PC register value can be saved in a link register, this allows the called routine to return to the next instruction at a later time. If the branch condition is not met, then no branch target address is generated and the computer system continues executing by moving to the next instruction in the sequence.

[0080] The 32-bit instruction format 22 g is a short instruction format defining the branch target address by means of a value held in a register. Such register values represent a way to change the program counter to an absolute value, to a value from a call saved in a link register or on a stack, or to a calculated value. The instruction format has an opcode major field taking a value of zero. The Gsrc field (defined by bits 15-20) designates the register holding the branch target address information. The instruction includes an optional predicate register field Psrc (bits 0-2) which indicates the predicate register to be accessed in order to establish whether or not to take the branch. The link register field Gdest (bits 3-8) defines a register for saving the current program count. If a link register field designates the zero register the program count is in effect discarded. The P-bit field (bits 12-14) is an optional field indicating a specific bit in the designated predicate register. This field is used in branch operations performed conditionally in dependence on the state of a single bit TRUE/FALSE value within a predicate register. The hint field (bit 24) indicates whether or not a branch is likely to be taken. Enabling a programmer to set this field removes the need to store large quantities of history information in order to predict likelihoods.

[0081] The 32-bit instruction format 22 h may be used to define another type of short branch instruction. This instruction format has an opcode major field of 1. This instruction format has a number of fields in common with the instruction format 22 g. These common fields serve corresponding purposes and are not discussed again here. An offset is used to define the branch target address. The Imm9 field (bits 15-23) specifies the offset in the form of a 9-bit immediate value.

[0082] Where an offset is defined by an immediate value, an immediate extension field may be used to extend the 9-bit immediate value to a 32-bit immediate value. This is achieved by combining instruction format 22 h with the instruction format 22 c to generate a long branch instruction defined by a 64-bit instruction word. A long branch instruction may thus be regarded as the short branch format coupled with an immediate extension.

[0083] Short branch instructions may be performed in parallel with other instructions, whereas long branch instructions cannot. For an immediate offset, a value of 0 causes the execution unit to move to the next instruction and a value of 1 causes a branch to the next but one instruction. The total range of a long branch instruction is −2147483648 instructions to +2147483647 instructions. The range of short branch instructions is −256 instructions to +255 instructions.

[0084] Thus destination program counter values which specify the branch target address, are generated either by a value held in a register or an address converted by the assembler into a signed offset expressed as a label in binary coding. To aid the execution unit in executing branches quickly, the programmer can indicate if the branch is likely to be taken or not. Long branch instruction semantics are illustrated in Table 2. TABLE 2 Name Semantics Function BANY {L} <Psrc>, <label> {, <link>} branch if any predicate bit is true BNONE {L} <Psrc>, <label> {, <link>} branch no predicate bits are true BPF {L} <Psrc>, <bit>, <label> branch if the predicate bit is {, <link>} false BPT {L} <Psrc>, <bit>, <label> branch if the predicate bit is {, <link>} true

[0085] The {L} field is an optional field indicating the likelihood of the branch being taken. The Psrc field represents any predicate register. The label field represents a signed constant defined in terms of a 32-bit immediate value. The link field designates a register for holding the old program count in the event a branch is taken.

[0086] The BANY branch instruction causes the execution unit to branch to the target address if any one of the 8-bits in the designated predicate register is TRUE. This instruction can optionally save the old program counter value in a link register. The BNONE branch instruction causes the execution unit to branch to the target address if none of the 8-bits in the designated predicate register is TRUE, optionally saving the current program count value in a link register. The BPF branch instruction causes the execution unit to branch to the target address if a selected bit (Pbit) in the predicate register is FALSE. The BPT branch instruction causes the execution unit to branch to the target address if a selected bit (Pbit) in the predicate register is TRUE. The Pbit field may be used to designate a predetermined one of the 8-bit positions 0-7 in a predicate register. The predicate field Psrc may be used to designate any of the 8 predicate registers as the controlling predicate register for a given instruction. As before, the BPF and BPT long instructions can optionally save the old program count value to a link register.

[0087] Short branch instruction semantics are illustrated in Table 3. TABLE 3 Name Semantics Function SBANY {L} <Psrc>, <destpc> {, <link>} short branch any predicate true SBNONE {L} <Psrc>, <destpc> {, <link>} short branch no predicate true SBPF {L} <Psrc>. <bit>, <destpc> short branch predicate {, <link>} false SBPT {L} <Psrc>. <bit>, <destpc> short branch predicate {, <link>} true

[0088] The Psrc, link and Pbit fields correspond to like fields in Table 2. The contents of the destination programme counter field destpc may be a label or designate a register. With short branch instructions a label is a signed constant defined in terms of a 9-bit immediate value and a register field designates a value held in a register somewhere.

[0089]FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate how the branch instructions listed in Tables 2 and 3 are performed conditionally based on either a test on a plurality of TRUE/FALSE flags or on a test of a single bit TRUE/FALSE flag.

[0090]FIG. 7A shows an addressable instruction store 80 of a type found in an instruction cache 3. The instruction store holds a sequence of instructions, each with a unique address 0000 to $$$$. The sequence includes many types of instructions, for example data processing instructions INSTR0-3 and branch instructions BANY. The programme counter PC steps through the address sequence, each step prompting the fetch/decode circuitry 4 to issue a control signal ADDR causing a 64-bit instruction to be moved from the instruction store 80 to the fetch/decode circuitry 4. The fetched instruction is decoded and control signals required for the execution unit to perform the operation defined in the instruction are generated and issued as required.

[0091] In the example of FIG. 7A, the instruction at the address 0101 is a long branch instruction. When the programme counter reaches the address 0101 the BANY instruction is fetched. The decode circuitry 4 identifies the instruction as a branch type. The decode circuitry indicates the predicate register pr1 to be checked and the type of check to be performed to the checking circuit 70. The label used to generate the branch target address is held in a temporary buffer 72. Responsive to the indications from the fetch/decode circuitry, the checking circuit 70 accesses the predicate register pr1 and tests whether any of the 8-bits are TRUE. If the “any bit TRUE” condition is satisfied, a branch control signal B causes the label in the buffer 72 to be added to the program counter PC, thereby generating the branch target address. In this example the old program counter value is saved to a designated link register at the same time. If the “any bit TRUE” condition is not met, no branch control signal is generated and the program counter PC instead steps to the next instruction in the sequence.

[0092] SBANY instructions operate in a similar manner. However, a register value may be used in place of the label value. Long and short BNONE instructions in which the test condition is only met if none of the 8 predicate bits are TRUE are also supported.

[0093]FIG. 7B illustrates an example of branching based on a condition which tests a single bit. In this case, the instruction at address 0101 is a BPF instruction. This type of instruction causes a branch to be taken only if a specific flag in the designated predicate register is FALSE. When the programme counter reaches the address of the BPF instruction the instruction is fetched and decoded as described before. However, the BPF instruction includes a Pbit field indicting one of the 8 bits in the designated predicate register Pr1 to be checked for a FALSE state. The result of this test depends on the state of the specified flag bit only. The states of other bits in the same predicate register are immaterial. The fetch/decode circuit 4 indicates the predicate register pr1 to be checked, the type of check to be performed, and the predetermined test bit location Pbit to the checking circuit 70. In this example, the checking circuit 70 accesses the predicate register pr1 and checks the state of predicate bit 5. If this predicate bit is FALSE, the branch condition is met and a branch control signal B causes the generation of the branch target address in the program counter as before. If the branch condition is not met, no branch target address is generated and the program counter increments to the next address in the sequence.

[0094] Short branch instructions of this type SBPF operate similarly. However, the label may be replaced by a value held in a register. Long and short versions of the PBT instructions operate in substantially the same manner. However, in BPT instructions a branch is only taken where the tested predicate bit is true.

[0095] Thus, using the above-described predication technique operations can be performed conditionally on packed objects of any predetermined size. Operations defined in the instruction formats are carried out on each “lane” of the operand, that is on each pair of corresponding packed objects in respective source registers src1, src2 or source register and immediate value as the case may be.

[0096] Setting operations can be used to set bits of the predicate registers in dependence on predetermined test conditions. Predicate setting instructions have the following general form:

[0097] {Psrc}.SETOP TSTID B/H/W, Pr$, src1, src2

[0098] The {Psrc} is an optional field which may be used to designate a controlling predicate register if the predicate setting operation is to be predicated. The SETOP field specifies the type of operation which will be used to set the predicate register. For example, the TRUE/FALSE values of the bits in predicate registers can be set by a specific integer arithmetic comparison operation (CMP), a boolean bit test operation (TST) or a floating point comparison operation (FCMP). The TSTID field indicates the test to be performed. For example, in the case of compare operations an arithmetic test is specified in this bit sequence, for boolean test operations a logical test is specified and for floating operations a floating point test is specified. The Pr$ field designates one of the eight predicate registers to be set. The src1 and src2 fields specify first and second operand source registers for the predicate setting operation. Thus, instructions defining predicate setting operations do not have a destination field as such. The 6 bits used to specify a destination register for data processing operations, namely the Gdest field of instruction formats 22 a and 22 b (see FIG. 6B) are used differently. TSTID and Pr$ fields each require 3 bits and occupy a bit sequence equivalent in size to the destination register field of a data processing operation. In this embodiment, the B/H/W/L indication of an instruction is encoded as part of the opcode field. In other embodiments, different encoding schemes may be used. For example, it would be equally feasible to design a binary encoding scheme with a special 2 bit field carrying this information.

[0099] A class of ORSET tests set the destination predicate register only if the result is TRUE. For example, a “compareOR” operation sets predicate register bits only if the result of a compare operation is TRUE. That is, a positive result sets to TRUE and a negative result gives no change. This is achieved by predicating the writing of the value in the destination register with the value itself. The instruction CMPORLEB, Pr1, src1, src2 provides an OR test applied between the old Pr1 bit value and the result of the comparison operation src1≦src2. Thus, overall a Pr1 bit value is set TRUE if either the old OR the new result is TRUE. Again, the assembler language may use synonyms for related types of operation (e.g. CMPOR, TSTOR, FCMPOR).

[0100] Table 4 illustrates SETOP and TSTID fields for various types of predicate setting operation. TABLE 4 SETOP TSTID FUNCTION EXAMPLE CMP GT Signed greater than e.g. CMPGT HI Unsigned higher than LE Signed less than or equal LS Unsigned lower than or same FCMP EQ Equal e.g. FCMPGT NE Not equal GE Greater than or equal GT Greater than LE Less than or equal LT Less than NF Infinity of NaN UN Unordered TST EQ Equal e.g. TSTNE NE Not equal ZE Zero (for bitwise AND) NZ Not zero (for bitwise AND) BC Bit clear BS Bit set (dyadic by bit number)

[0101] Typically the SETOP and TSTID fields are combined in a single large field.

[0102] CMPOR type operations can employ the same tests as the CMP type operations. FCMPOR type operations can use any test indicated for FCMP operations. TSTOR operations can use the same tests as TST operations.

[0103] The full instruction set will depend on the application. For example, the instruction set is generally capable of executing standard computer languages (such as C, C++ and Java) but is primarily designed for special purpose functions employed in, for example, encoding/decoding communication signals, video processing (e.g. compression, decompression and filtering signals), three-dimensional graphics, image processing, compressing and decompressing moving images and sound, performing voice and/or image recognition functions. A skilled person would readily appreciate that to achieve efficient implementation over a variety of applications it may be necessary for the binary code to differ from one embodiment to another. However, it is possible for all implementations to be compatible at assembly language level and higher levels if desired

[0104] Predicate setting operations set respective bits of the predicate register designated in the instruction in dependence on the result of the test on each byte lane. In predicate setting instructions the destination register field indicates a predicate register. Byte level tests set respective individual bits in the designated predicate register to the result on each byte lane. Half word tests set adjacent bit pairs in the designated predicate register to the result of the test on each half word lane. Likewise, word level tests set groups of four adjacent bits in the designated predicate register to the result of the test on each word lane and long word tests set all eight bits in a predicate register to the result of the long word test.

[0105]FIG. 8A illustrates how a comparison operation, such as a specific integer arithmetic comparison on byte sized packed objects (CMPLTB) can be used to set individual TRUE/FALSE values in a predicate register. An instruction format based on the Register/Register instruction format designated by referenced numeral 22 a of FIG. 6B is used to define this compare operation. The “compare less than” instruction has the following semantics: {Psrc}.CMPLT{B/H/W}, dest, src1, src2. The first and second source fields src1, src2 specify registers holding values to be compared in the operation and the destination register field dest indicates a predicate register to which the results are to be written. The Psrc field is an optional field used to indicate a controlling predicate register. In this example, the instruction CMPLTB Pr1, src1, src2 compares byte sized packed objects held in the first source register src1 with corresponding byte sized packed objects in the second source register src2 to test on a per lane B₀-B₇ basis whether values in src1 are less than corresponding src2 values. The test result for each lane is written to the corresponding bit position 0-7 in the predicate register pr1. That is, for each lane the corresponding bit in the predicate register pr1 is set TRUE (1) if the less than test applies and FALSE (0) otherwise. In this example, the less than test is positive for byte lanes B₀, B₁, B₂, B₄, B₆, B₇ and negative for byte lanes B₃ and B₅. As a result, bits 0,1,2,4,6 and 7 of the predicate register are set TRUE (1), whereas, bits 3 and 5 are set FALSE (0).

[0106]FIG. 8B is a schematic diagram illustrating that operations on packed objects of any predetermined size may be used to set a plurality of TRUE/FALSE values in predicate registers simultaneously. In this example a word level comparison operation is used to write to sets of 4 bits in a predicate register. According to the instruction CMPLTW Pr1, src1, src2, word sized packed objects held in the first source register src1 are compared with corresponding word sized packed objects in the second source src2 register to test for a less than relationship. The word level comparison performs two comparison sub-operations, rather than eight or four as would be required in byte or half word comparison operations, respectively. Each comparison operation sets four bits of the predicate register at the same time. The predicate bits are set TRUE (1) if the less than condition is met and FALSE (0) otherwise. The first word W₀ comparison writes to predicate bits 0, 1, 2 and 3 and the second word W1 comparison writes to predicate bits 4, 5, 6 and 7.

[0107] There are many types of comparison and other test operations which can apply test conditions to set predicate registers. A predicate register can be set to a state with every bit TRUE by testing the Zero Register for equality with itself An instruction for this purpose reads TSTEQL Psrc, ZR, ZR. Likewise, a predicate register can be set to a state with every bit FALSE by testing the Zero Register for inequality with itself An instruction for this purpose reads TSTNEL Psrc, ZR, ZR.

[0108] Thus, in preferred embodiments only byte-wise (per byte) conditional execution need be supported. Predicate register setting processes employ per (operand) lane operations to set a predetermined number of predicate bits in a designated predicate register and, therefore, necessarily generate fewer bits of condition result than would normally arise from the operation. It is possible to drive the per byte conditional execution of instructions by means of predicate setting operations using operands of any size (eg B/H/W/L). The ability to perform predicate setting operations over different (operand) lane sizes allows predicate bit setting operations to replicate predicate bits as necessary. That is, predicate setting operations can set individual bits or groups of bits simultaneously by specifying in instructions the lane size over which the setting operation is to be performed.

[0109] Byte level predicate setting operations are used to set individual bits of the predicate register TRUE or FALSE. Higher level (half word, word or long word) predicate register setting operations are used to set groups of predicate register bits TRUE or FALSE. When operations are used to set groups of predicate bits each bit within the group is set to the same TRUE/FALSE value. The predicate bits are generally, but not always, set by an operation having the same lane size as the operation to be predicated. For example, a half word level predicate setting operation is typically performed to set a predicate register for use in the predication of half word level data processing operations.

[0110]FIGS. 9A and 9B illustrate predicated execution of predicate register setting operations allowing individual bits within a predicate register to be set conditionally. Two or more consecutive setting operations can be used in combination to provide more sophisticated test conditions. For example in FIG. 9A a predicate setting condition using a logical AND test is applied to set a predicate register. A logical AND test can be performed by means of a first predicate register setting operation 900 applying a compare greater than test to a first set of values and a second predicate register setting operation 902 applying a compare less than test to a second set of values, the second compare operation being conditionally executed on a per bit lane basis under the control of the predicate register set by the first operation. That is, the first and second predicate register setting operations act on the same predicate register Pr1. Predicating a comparison operation in this way thus has the effect of ANDing the new result and the previous value. The instruction CMPGTB Pr1, src1a, src2a (defining operation 900) followed by the instruction Pr1. CMPLEB Pr1, src1b, src2b (defining operation 902) causes the predicate register Pr1* to be finally set with the result of the byte level test (src1a>src2a) AND (src1b<src2b). The instruction Pr1 CMPLEB P1, scr1b, scr2b replaces respective bit values in the predicate register Pr1 with the AND of the old Pr1 bit value and the byte level comparison scr1b≦scr2b. This is because where a Pr1 bit value is FALSE it remains so since the operation is not performed on that lane and where a Pr1 bit value is TRUE it is replaced with the result of the comparison operation scr1b≦scr2b. Thus, overall a Pr1 bit value remains true only if the old AND new result are both TRUE. The assembler language may use synonyms for this and similar special classes of instructions, e.g. CMPAND, TSTAND, FCMPAND.

[0111] In FIG. 9B a predicate setting condition using a logical OR test is applied by means of a first compare operation 904 applying a greater than operation followed by a second “compareOR” 906 operation applying a less than test. For example, the instruction CMPGTB Pr1, src1a, src2a, followed by CMPORLEB Pr1, src1b, src2b, leads to a predicate register Pr1* containing the results of the test (src1a>src2a) OR (src1b≦src2b).

[0112] Further, conditions combining logical AND and logical OR functionality may be used to set predicate registers. For example, the condition A<B AND C≧D OR E=F can be coded directly using a sequence comprising comparison, predicated comparison and ORSET operations to produce a single predicate register containing the TRUE/FALSE flags for each SIMD lane of the whole expression. A suitable set of instructions for a word level predicate setting operation of this type reads: CMPLEW Pr1, srcA, srcB; Pr1. CMPGTW Pr1′, srcC, srcD and TSTOREQW Pr1, srcE, srcF. Alternatively the following sequence of instructions may be used to achieve the same result: CMPLEW Pr1, srcA, srcB; CMPANDGTW Pr1, srcC, srcD and TSTOREQW Pr1, srcE, srcF.

[0113] Thus, predicated (per bit) conditional execution of predicate bit setting operations of the type described allow execution conditions based on logical “AND” to be set. These conditions can be set in the same manner regardless of operand lane size, for example using a CMPAND or TSTAND instruction.

[0114] Furthermore, predicate (per bit) conditional execution of predicate bit setting operations can also facilitate logical “OR” conditions in addition, or in alternative, to the logical AND conditions. All such condition setting operations treat operands of different sizes in the same way and thus provide a versatile and simple way of setting complex execution conditions.

[0115]FIG. 10 illustrates how it is possible to set predicate registers using operations having a smaller lane size than the lane size of a data processing operation to be predicated. Since predication is always performed at byte level this approach allows operations to be performed conditionally on bytes within a long word, word or half word. A predicate register setting operation 1000 employs a byte level “less than or equal to” comparison to set the predicate register Pr1. The result is that bits 0-3 and bits 6, 7 of the predicate register are set TRUE, whereas bits 4 and 5 are set FALSE. A word level ADD operation 1002 performed after the predicate setting operation 1000 is executed in dependence on byte level predication. The word level ADD operation is thus executed on the entire first word W₀ since bits 0-3 of the predicate register are TRUE. However, since predicate bits 4, 5 are set FALSE and predicate bits 6, 7 are set TRUE, the word level ADD operation is performed only on part of the second word W₁. The ADD operation is performed on the part word PW_(A) corresponding to the two most significant bytes of word W₁ under the control predicate bits 6 and 7. The ADD operation is not performed on the part word PW_(B) corresponding to the two least significant bytes of the word W₁.

[0116]FIG. 11 schematically illustrates a typical sequence of operations performed by preferred computer systems. A first setting instruction 1100 defines a predicate setting operation. The instruction defines the predicate setting operation by specifying the type of operation in a SETOP field and the test to be applied in a TSTID field. The instruction also specifies two source registers src1A, src2A and a predicate register Pr0 to receive the results for each operand lane. The setting operation may or may not be predicated. Where a predicate register to control the setting operation is designated in a Psrc field it may or may not be the same predicate register as that designated to receive the results. According to the instruction 1100, corresponding objects from the source registers 1102, 1104 are supplied to functional logic 1106 connected to perform the operation specified in the instruction 1100. The results are written to the predicate register designated in the setting instruction 1100 with or without predication 1108. The number of adjacent predicate bits written by the setting operation depends on the size of the operand lane B/H/W specified in the setting instruction 1100.

[0117] One or more further setting operations may be performed 1110 with the results written to the same or a different predicate register as desired. Complex predicate setting conditions can be set by performing consecutive setting operations on the same predicate register.

[0118] Next an instruction 1120 to be conditionally executed (e.g. a data processing operation or a branch operation) is fetched and decoded. This instruction 1120 designates a controlling predicate register Pr0. Next an instruction 1120 to be conditionally executed is fetched and decoded. The instruction may be a data processing instruction as illustrated here or a branch instruction as described hereinbefore. This instruction 1120 includes fields designating a controlling predicate register Pr0 and defining a data processing operation DATAPROC on packed operands of a predetermined size B/H/W. The instruction also includes fields indicating first and second source registers src1B, src2B together with a destination register dest. In accordance with the instruction 1120 corresponding packed operands are supplied form the source registers 1122, 1124 to data processing logic 1126. Predicate checking logic 1128 accesses the designated predicate register Pr0 and controls a switching circuit 1130 to determine which SIMD lane results are written to the destination register 1132. Only results for operand lanes having a controlling predicate bit set to TRUE are written to the corresponding lane of the destination register 1132. Results for lanes controlled by predicate bits set to FALSE are not written to the destination register 1132.

[0119] Thus, preferred computer systems are capable of conditionally carrying out an operation defined in an SIMD computer instruction. The computer instruction is implemented on packed operands containing a plurality of packed objects in respective lanes. An operation defined in a computer instruction is conditionally performed per operand lane in dependence upon single bit flags which determine for each operand lane whether or not the operation is to be executed. The flags are stored in a plurality of multi-bit predicate registers. Each predicate register comprises a plurality of flags, one for each lane on which the instruction is to be conditionally executed. Instructions which are to be conditionally executed include a bit sequence designating which of the plurality of predicate registers is to control that instruction. The flags in the designated predicate register control a set of switches, one for each operand lane. These switches control whether or not the result of the operation updates the values in the corresponding lane of the destination register. The flags of a predicate register can be set simultaneously by means of general operations which write results to the predicate register.

[0120] In some operations results are written to pairs of registers at the same time. An example of an operation which normally writes results to a register pair is “Deal” bytes from a source register pair to a destination register pair. In such cases, predicate bit i controls the writing of (byte) lane 2*i and (byte) lane 2*i+1. This provides the effect of controlling the destination operand lane in the same way as the predicate bits normally control (byte) lane execution. For example, if a predicate register is set with a compare half word operation and then used to control a multiply half word operation it will control each of the four half word lanes independently. For example, when the predicate register is used to multiply unsigned half words to produce words in separate registers it will control each of the four (double sized) word lanes in the same way.

[0121] Another class of operations which write to two pairs of registers at the same time is dual execute operations (eg ALU2 or MAC2 operations). Where desirable, these types of instructions can be conditionally executed in the general manner described herein but using even/odd pairs of predicate registers designated by the instruction.

[0122] An advantage in using preferred embodiments to conditionally execute branch instructions is a reduced need to code long sequences of branch instructions. This results in improved performance each time the need to fetch a branch instruction is avoided. Preferred embodiments also facilitate sophisticated branch conditions which would otherwise be difficult or impossible to formulate.

[0123] A skilled reader will readily appreciate that the invention should not be limited to specific apparatus configurations or method steps disclosed in this specific description of the preferred embodiment. Those skilled in the art will also recognize that the present invention has a broad range of applications, and the embodiments admit of a wide range of modifications, without departure from the inventive concepts.

[0124] In this embodiment, arithmetic operations are supported for operand sizes up to 32 bits and pure bitwise logical operations are supported for operand sizes of up to 64 bits. This is not intended to be limiting.

[0125] While the foregoing has described what are considered to be the best mode and/or other preferred embodiments of the invention, it is understood that various modifications may be made therein and that the invention may be implemented in various forms and embodiments, and that it may be applied in numerous applications, only some of which have been described herein. It is intended by the following claims to claim any and all modifications and variations that fall within the true scope of the inventive concepts. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of conditionally executing branch instructions which comprise an opcode field defining a type of test to be applied to determine whether or not to execute a branch operation, a control field designating a control store holding a plurality of indicators, and a destination field holding information on a branch target address, the method comprising: determining from the opcode field whether or not the test will check the state of one indicator or a plurality of indicators in the designated control store; accessing the designated control store to check the state of said one or said plurality of indicators depending on the determination; and generating a branch target address using information in the destination field in dependence on the state of the or each indicator checked.
 2. A method as in claim 1, wherein a plurality of indicators is checked and a branch target address is generated if any one of said checked indicators is set to a predetermined state.
 3. A method as in claim 1, wherein a plurality of indicators is checked and a branch target address is generated if none of said checked indicators is set to a predetermined state.
 4. A method as in claim 1, wherein said branch instruction includes an indicator field specifying an indicator within said control store, said branch target address being generated if said specified indicator is set to a predetermined state.
 5. A method as in claim 1, wherein said branch instruction includes a field indicating the likelihood of a branch being taken.
 6. A method as in claim 1, wherein said branch instruction comprises a store field and if a branch target address is generated, the next address in the sequence is saved in a store designated by the store field.
 7. A method as in claim 1, wherein an indicator of the control store is pre-set to a first state or a second state based on a resolved test condition.
 8. A method as in claim 1, wherein a preset state of an indicator depends on two or more indicator setting operations.
 9. A method as in claim 1, wherein said control store comprises a predicate register and said indicators comprise a plurality of single bit TRUE/FALSE values.
 10. A method as in claim 1, including the step of determining from the control field which of a plurality of control stores should be accessed.
 11. Branch execution circuitry for use in a computer system to conditionally execute branch instructions, the branch execution circuitry comprising: at least one control store comprising a plurality of indicators, each said indicator being preset to a first state or a second state; and checking circuitry connected to receive an indication of the type of test to be applied in determining whether or not to execute the branch from a branch instruction, said checking circuitry being operable to check one or a plurality of said indicators of the control store according to the detected test type; and branch target address generation circuitry for generating a branch target address, the branch target address generation circuitry being operative to generate a branch target address in dependence on the test performed on the or each indicator.
 12. A computer system for executing branch instructions, the computer system comprising: fetch and decode circuitry for fetching and decoding a sequence of instructions from an instruction store; branch execution circuitry according to claim 11, wherein the branch target address, when generated, is used to control subsequent fetches from the instruction store so as to implement a branch.
 13. A computer system as in claim 12, comprising a program counter, wherein the address generation circuit is operable to replace the program counter value with a new value from a data store.
 14. A computer system as in claim 12, comprising a program counter, wherein the branch address generation circuit is operable to modify the program count based on an immediate value.
 15. A computer program product comprising program code means for performing the method of claim
 1. 16. Branch execution circuitry for use in a computer system to conditionally execute branch instructions, the branch execution circuitry comprising: a plurality of predicate register means each comprising a plurality of indicators, each said indicator capable of being preset to a first state or a second state; and checking means connected to receive an indication of which predicate register means is to be accessed and an indication of the type of test to be applied during the access to determine whether or not to execute the branch from a branch instruction, said checking means being operable to check one or a plurality of said indicators of the predicate register means according to the detected test type; and branch target address generation means for generating a branch target address, the branch target address generation circuitry being operative to generate a branch target address in dependence on the test performed on the or each indicator. 